CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Western Carolina athletics media relations received its first-ever College Sports Information Directors (CoSIDA) Fred Stabley Sr. District III Writing Contest award this week as Director of Media Relations and Social Media Director Denise Gideon was honored in the Blog/Interview category for her feature on former Catamount football player Geno Segers.

Gideon highlighted Segers' first-ever role in a network series as he played Dwayne in the NBC series "Perfect Harmony." (Click here to read winning entry).

The 2020 District III winning entry includes colleges and universities from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. District winners are selected from the following categories – Athlete Profile, Coach/Administration Profile, Event Coverage, Blog Interview, Historical Feature, and Season Recap/Preview. In all, there are eight districts and a panel of 39 judges reviewed a total of 337 entries.

Gideon was the only person honored from Southern Conference schools this year with the prestigious writing award from CoSIDA. It is the first time a member of a SoCon school's media relations staff has been honored since 2013 when the College of Charleston (who was still a SoCon member at the time) was recognized.

Dating back to 2003, the award program is named after Fred Stabley, Sr., who was a long-time sports information director at Michigan State. The press box at Spartan Stadium is named after him and he was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 1969 and the Michigan State Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.